Category: Faith Ponderings

A prayer for passion and re-ignition

If speech and arts are not accompanied by love and passion

they will fall horribly short and mean nothing but empty sound. 

If actions are done out of obligation without compassion and care

they will reach numbed hands and cold hearts in a winter world.

If our actions are compelled only by our pay checks and selfish desires

we will start fires in our pocketbooks but not in the hearts of men.

It will all be for naught and this world would have inherited another cold soul.

Passion, fire and love begin and end with a heart knowledge of God.

Without such an intimate experience we can live, but it will be temporal

it will be less, it will be empty and vacant where He could reside and stoke

the fires of our souls and passions.

Dear Lord, Ignite our flames once more.

Ignite in us Your burning passion for Holiness and compassion

for this world in which we live.

May our worship not be out of obligation or command

but out of love and this deep desire to know more of You, 

and through this engulfing flame, may our eyes

see others the way You see them and be spurned to act

without our interests in mind, but to capture the hearts 

of others for You and Your kingdom come. 

-Amen.

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An Idle Saturday Morning.

I am laying in bed listening to the sounds of the wailing wind through a half cracked bedroom window. The swirl of rotting leaves, a cacophony of sound merrily at a play in the frosty yard below. I have no where to go on this cold November morning. No plans to keep, or commitments to make…yet I am restless. I once heard that idle hands are the devil’s play ground, but on this morning encompassed by a gale of fury with winter knocking, I am all but content in remaining absolutely still.

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Reminder: Thanksgiving Creative Arts Competition

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Here’s just another reminder about a fun competition that I would like to begin here on my blog. This is our first annual (with more to come I hope) creative arts competition.

Criteria is listed below:

 

Hey fellow writers and avid readers! I would like to announce a writing competition that I would like to conduct right here on this blog site: http://www.scottstrissel.wordpress.com
I am looking for your entry submissions for the following categories:

Photographs:
Submissions to this category MUST be your own work and not cut and pasted from someone else! These photographs should represent elements of “Thanksgiving” not just the holiday but the emotion, family, Christ, Salvation, our spiritual journey. Please limit your photo entries to five photos.

Poetry
Submissions to this category MUST be your own work and not cut and pasted from someone else!
Again the topic is Thanksgiving and as mentioned above should include some of these thematic elements. Please utilize a total of 750 words, less is fine , but no more that 750 words.

Prose (Story form or article format):
Submissions to this category MUST be your own work and not cut and pasted from someone else!
Again the topic is Thanksgiving and as mentioned above should include some of these thematic elements. Please utilize a total of 800 words, less is fine but more will be rejected.

Winners:
Of each category will be announced on November 29th (the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, AKA Black Friday)
The winners will be post here on this blog site and will receive a bag of Starbucks Coffee (hey I wish I had cash prizes to give you but I’m a broke Pastor with four kids to feed).
I will accept international submissions and if chosen I will post your submission here, but I WILL NOT be able to mail you coffee (sorry).

DUE DATE OF SUBMISSIONS:
November 23rd, 2013 by NOON CST (US central standard time)

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY:
Please submit your entry to: scottstrissel@yahoo.com
Please, also label it on your e-mail “Thanksgiving Writing Competition”

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Lord I forgot about You! (A Poem and Prayer)

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Life is marred by many things

and busy schedules 

with phones that ring 

and Lord I confess I forget You. 

 

When worries increase

and time flies by

my space all leased

I am left wondering why…

why have I forgotten You?  

 

These fears flood in 

and hope leaks out

under-sieged by sin 

and I’m without 

why have I forgotten You?  

 

Until on my knees I must bend

In prayer and solitude again 

to reconnect with the Eternal friend

this is how is begins and ends.  

 

 

 

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“Choose God”

1 Samuel 8:6-9 (NIV)
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.
And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.  As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.  Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

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God’s heart must have ached in hearing the pleas of His people.  They demanded a king.  They looked around at the other nations and coveted what they had.  God had provided them food and protection in a barren land during the exodus, and He had provided them lands to call their own, but still they strayed from Him.  Still they wanted more.  Enemies were vanquished before His people, provisions were met and yet they took it all for granted.  

When they cried out for a king in the setting sun of Samuel’s leadership, God reminded him that it was aimed at the Almighty.  “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”  (1 Samuel 8:7)  Imagine for a moment giving up the One who was their fortress of protection.  Imagine saying to God, your wealth, though it outnumbers the stars in the sky, is not enough for me…we want something else.  God had poured out His love upon His people and they had rejected it again and again.  

If there was ever a governmental system in this world that could stand the test of time it was and still is God’s model.  No other form of government has ever before or ever will prove more pure and selfless than His.  No other form of democracy will ever remain without being tainted by man’s selfish ambitions for power, prestige and wealth.  Yet His people chose a lower form of government because other nation’s systems looked more appealing.  The lure of other gods and openly degenerate moralistic standards appealed to the people of God.  How awful Samuel, God’s prophet must have felt.  How hurt and heartsick with grief Samuel must have been.  

Have you ever felt the sting of rejection?  I have a time or two.  It is an emotion that without a doubt begs never to be repeated in the human heart.  Though this went much deeper than a single person being rejected, God was rejected by the entirety of His chosen people!  They turned their backs on Him.  They decided that He couldn’t support their needs any longer and so a king would better suit their pleasures.  

I imagine through pain, disdain and hurt God tells Samuel to give the people what they want.  But He also warns Samuel to tell them what the results will be of their betrayal and choice.   “Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” (1 Samuel 8:9) The idea of a king was far more appealing to the people of God than actually considering the consequences of their choice.  The king would reign over them, not like a loving, understanding and all knowing God, but like a man driven by selfish intentions and sin this would be how they would be ruled over.  

God allowed them to choose.  We are a created with this free-will within us.  We are not compelled or forced to love and serve God.  Yet when we choose to reject Him and His hand upon our lives we soon find that in our folly the devastating consequences of life without Him!  I am not advocating for one form of government over another today, nor am I renouncing any leadership within our government (Scripture clearly says: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:13-17))  But what I am saying is this; above everything choose Him.  Don’t turn from the One who created us and has preserved our lives.  Choose God.  Serve Him, love Him and make Him Lord of your life above and before all else.  

-Just a thought for today.

 

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Dear Micromanagers, you can’t micromanage God!

Walking down the street this morning, I was cold. With scarf wrapped around my neck and coat zipped as high as it would go, I walked to my destination, which was just at the end of the block. I almost missed it. It was purple in color…kind of hard to miss, and yet in my rush to get on with my busy schedule, I nearly missed a message seemingly intended for me.

Cars roared by, billowing out smoke and steam into the frosty air. School buses, full of students bemoaning the early mornings with backpacks full of homework yet uneaten by the dog, passed me by on their way to buildings of education near by. It wasn’t far now, my destination, just mere feet…then I paused.

There before me, printed on a stark concrete slab were words that I needed to see. In purple were the words, “Don’t take life so seriously”. In my whirl wind day, as weeks would soon be upon me that would pull me in every which way, I needed those words. They spoke to me. They didn’t say to me “just ignore the priorities of life”, or “stop being responsible”…but instead those words rang out in my heart ad shook me awake to the notion that I am not nor can I ever take the place of God in my life. I do have responsibilities and to quote Robert Frost “promises to keep”, yet I cannot control the outcome of this life and that of others around me.

I can be diligent and faithful as a Christ-follower, but there will be times where, those I can’t see the future I must willingly step forward and trust my Christ that He truly knows the way. This is extremely frightening to me…not to maintain that control on my life, but I’m positive that I am not the only one.

We all take life too seriously in the ways we conduct ourselves and in our we try to control all of the possible outcomes in this life. We try to micromanage this faith and we ignorantly try to tell God how things ought to be and in so doing we fail horribly in our attempts to play God.

What have you been trying to control in your life that ought to be placed under God’s authority? We need to stop taking control and being so serious that we fail to allow God to lead! Stop and allow Him to lead even though it might uncomfortable to let go…we will be better for it in the long and Eternal road.

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Meditation: Appointing.

In my heart, dear Lord
there is room.
It is not as
Hospitable as it can be
But it is all
That I possess.

In Your hands, dear Lord
I want to stay
I am quite rough
Not polished
Not refined
But who i am now
Is not what I will be
when you have
completed this
great work within me.

In this world, dear Lord
I hear your calling
loud like thunder
yet soft as falling rain
“Who will go? Who can I send?”
You ask and
I must bend my knee
and put feet
To my little faith…
“Here I am, Dear Lord…
Send me!”

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Skip A Stone In Autumn (A Poem)

“You will be missed!”

I utter from scornful and

mournful lips

on my tip toes I attempt to

peer past the horizon and beyond

the curvature of the world

so that I can glimpse

her fire

one more time.  

Statue-still waters ripple and lap

gently onto pebbles slick with melancholy

as cold breaths of winter

glimpse in on us 

inquisitive yet oblivious to our 

mourning there. 

I skip one more stone 

with warm days of August

still lingering to fingertips

now growing deathly cold…

turning, I exhale one last time

and reluctantly embrace

these colder days once again.

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photo & poem by Scott E. Strissel 11/5/2013

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Of our yesterday’s and our Eternal tomorrows (a poem)

Sometimes tears fall like rain,
Other times like heavy
drifts of snow…
Drifts as deep and as wide
As a January burst.

We still miss you, you know,
How you laughed and loved
Often, when memories like
Blankets warm us, we
With watery eyes
Imagine you there with us
Doting on Grandkids
Giving until fingers are
to the bone…

Sometimes tears fall like solace
No longer empty
But warm and fresh
With sunlight
Spilling down upon us
We miss
Yet we soak it up
Lapping up salty tears
Like draughts of fresh
Water…just to remain
Closer, for one more
Lingering moment.

Sometimes all at once
We know
We see
We are enveloped
Again…
And we shine.

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Of our yesterday’s and our Eternal tomorrows (a poem)

Sometimes tears fall like rain,
Other times like heavy
drifts of snow…
Drifts as deep and as wide
As a January burst.

We still miss you, you know,
How you laughed and loved
Often, when memories like
Blankets warm us, we
With watery eyes
Imagine you there with us
Doting on Grandkids
Giving until fingers are
to the bone…

Sometimes tears fall like solace
No longer empty
But warm and fresh
With sunlight
Spilling down upon us
We miss
Yet we soak it up
Lapping up salty tears
Like draughts of fresh
Water…just to remain
Closer, for one more
Lingering moment.

Sometimes all at once
We know
We see
We are enveloped
Again…
And we shine.

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